


Strong and Yet Kind: A Defense of Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon

by IcyKali



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters: Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon | Pokemon Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon Versions
Genre: Essays, Other Characters Discussed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-14
Updated: 2018-08-14
Packaged: 2019-06-27 06:41:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,307
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15680070
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IcyKali/pseuds/IcyKali
Summary: Many people criticize the plot of Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, particularly due to the way it handled Lillie and Lusamine. This is an analysis and defense of the games' plot. This can be considered the updated version of my Lusamine essay!





	Strong and Yet Kind: A Defense of Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon

I’ve noticed that many people think _USUM_ ’s plot was too convoluted, and that it ruined Lusamine’s and Lillie’s character arcs. Often, I see fans claim that _USUM_ erases Lusamine’s evil and abuse of her children, and that her “redemption” is unconvincing or not demonstrated properly in these games. I also see people who are upset by Lillie’s path being a little different and some scenes being changed. I also see related complaints about the Ultra Recon Squad’s inclusion being confusing and unnecessary. I don’t agree with any of these ideas, and I’ll explain why here. Note that I am strictly discussing the storyline and characters of the games—the games are a separate canon from the anime and manga, and the games' creators have limited control over other versions. 

 _USUM_ 's plot actually answers criticisms that _Pokémon_ fans have been making about the series and about  _USUM_ 's older versions, _SM_. The first criticism is that _Pokémon_ plots are too repetitive, with their story arcs unfailingly consisting of taking down an evil organization, that organization’s head, and then the Elite Four and Champion. _USUM_ changes this formula drastically. Instead of the climax of the story being taking down an evil boss, it is figuring out how to treat Necrozma, who is a villainous pokémon.

We can treat the major characters at the heart of this quandary as the characters who are present at the showdown with Necrozma, when it forcefully fuses with Nebby: you, Lillie, Lusamine, Guzma, Nebby, Necrozma, and the Ultra Recon Squad. Each major character wants to handle the impending disaster Necrozma will cause in a different manner.

Ultra Recon Squad—Only wants things to go back to the way they were. They are naive and untrained in the ways of pokémon. They have good intentions and want to save Alola, and no longer want Necrozma to be hurt, but seem to have no grasp of what that all implies. They end up simply trying to put Necromza under an oppressive influence and are duped by villainous characters like Lusamine and Colress. Due to the Ultra Recon Squad’s naivety, inexperience, and conflicting goals and actions, they can be considered morally grey characters.

Lusamine—Wants to capture Necrozma all on her own. She betrays the Ultra Recon Squad, thinks everyone aside from herself and Guzma, who she uses as her lackey, is in the wrong and “unattractive,” even her own children. She wants to save Alola, but it’s actually to satisfy her urge to martyr herself and keep “loving” her “babies,” frozen specimens she keeps trapped and undying in her Trophy Room. She treats them as decorations and not living beings, the same way she treats her children. She can be considered an evil and abusive character.

Guzma—Just wants to defeat and beat up Necrozma in order to prove himself. However, unlike Lusamine, he does genuinely care about Alola and the people in it, particularly his team, Lusamine, and his pokémon. Despite that, however, he beats his Grunts when they fail him, relies on bad methods like stealing and abusing pokémon (see the poor traumatized Vulpix), also falls into the trap of wanting to martyr himself, and is far too hasty in his decisions. He threatens to kill the player character, who is a child. He gets enough joy out of causing others pain that he can be considered an evil and abusive character as well, though he’s nowhere near as bad as Lusamine. His being a survivor of abuse complicates things further, as his behavior has been influenced by his upbringing. However, he has apparently fallen into the same patterns of abusing others instead of learning to do the opposite.

Lillie, Nebby, and Sun/Moon—All want to treat Necrozma with compassion, and can be considered morally good. Lillie and Nebby learn over the course of the story that you have to fight and stand up for what is right, which is what Sun/Moon teaches them. This is why Lillie is so in love with the player character and tries to be like them. Lillie already had the compassion and ideals within her, but she needed the confidence to truly blossom. Lillie rewrites the narrative abusive parenting she received through her mother by having a loving parental relationship with Nebby. She even gives up Nebby and tells it Sun/Moon will become a new parental figure to it by the end of the game, and Nebby agrees that it should be with Necrozma in order to ease its pain. Sun/Moon also shares light from his/her Z-ring in order to heal Necrozma before it’s caught. A major trend in Lillie’s, Nebby’s, and Sun’s/Moon’s characters is sharing with others, helping each other, and not standing alone. This is why Lillie makes such a big deal of Lusamine being 1) selfish, 2) deciding what is best for other people, and 3) trying to things all by herself. Lusamine’s evil and abusive nature stems from these basic issues—Lillie is not trying to minimize how bad her mother is, nor are the writers—these are genuinely Lusamine’s major flaws. Even keeping frozen pokémon captive falls into the realms of selfishness and deciding what other people ought to want regardless of what they’re actually thinking.

Necrozma—Necrozma is an abuse victim itself, something I don’t see anyone discussing. It used to helpfully share its light with others, but these people became so greedy, they kept pushing it too far. Their treatment of Necrozma became so terrible that a part of it broke off, leaving it crippled, in pain, and hungering for light. Necrozma wants to steal light from other places in order to regain its former self, and it wants revenge for the abuse it suffered at the hands of the citizens of the Ultra Megalopolis. It is relevant that it flies into a rage when it sees Lusamine, who is an abuser who keeps people and pokémon on display. This is probably what _USUM_ ’s directors meant when they said that Necrozma had a natural enmity with characters in the game. If Lusamine was able to use the machine Colress developed that she stole on Necrozma, that is probably how Necrozma was able to force Nebby to fuse with it in the first place—forming an abusive relationship that caused both Necrozma and Nebby to suffer and lose control of themselves.

Lusamine, Guzma, and Necrozma cannot grow beyond being villains until each of them are defeated and see others take compassionate approaches. Lusamine sees that it's Lillie and Sun/Moon who succeeded where she failed disastrously. Guzma sees all that Lusamine does, plus that it’s his teammates who truly cared for him. He also has that conversation in which Hau explains that he was never a failure. Necrozma experiences Sun/Moon showing it compassion at Lanakila Crater. Meanwhile, the morally grey Ultra Recon Squad realize they have a lot more to learn and head off in order to grow.

Lusamine is still 100% villainous and abusive prior to the end of the game, but the climax of the game could not simply be taking her down because that wasn’t what the story was about. It wasn’t about defeating the head of an evil team, nor was it only about Lillie’s family. It was about the correct way to treat people, and Lillie was used as a positive example and Lusamine as a negative example. Lusamine should still very much be portrayed as a villainous team leader like all the others prior to her reformation. I think people aren’t quite used to seeing a _Pokémon_ game in which defeating an evil boss isn’t the climax of the drama, but that doesn’t mean Lusamine’s wasn’t an evil boss. I do not believe Lusamine's character was changed in _USUM_. Her obsession with Ultra Beasts did not fester as long, the arrival of the Ultra Recon Squad captured her attention, and there were a greater number of adult witnesses to her bad behavior who ended up calling her out for being selfish. Hau's impression that Lusamine was good all along cannot be taken as fact—Hau was sheltered by Hala and has lapses in judgement. Gladion's body language indicates that he knows things are more complex than Hau views them, and when Lillie agrees with Hau's statement, she is agreeing with his desire to get stronger, not with his idea that Lusamine is good. Clearly Lillie knows this isn't true, as she later explains Lusamine's failings to Plumeria on Poni Island. 

Now, about the other criticism I referred to that _USUM_ answered—I remember that people were angry about _SM_ mentioning in passing that Lusamine was becoming a better person without showing it. Yes, even back in _SM_ , Lusamine was never a Ghetsis. After being beaten, she apparently showed regret and tried to become a better person, even back in those games—the writing was simply clumsy and fans rightfully pointed out that there was not nearly enough evidence that she was truly improving. _USUM_ addresses the showing vs. telling issue fans pointed out very well! Once Necrozma is defeated, Lusamine first tells Lillie she’ll help Nebby at Aether Paradise. Now, I’ve seen some people say this is a sign of Lusamine is trying to get Lillie under her control again. But that’s not true. Why not? Well, that’s because after Nebby is better, Lusamine:

1) Expresses her regret about being an unfit mother and president.

2) Accepts and supports Gladion’s decision to leave for other shores.

3) Lets Lillie go to live with Kukui instead of keeping her at Aether Paradise (I haven’t seen people point out the significance of this action before).

4) Lets Nebby go off with Lillie instead of keeping it at Aether Paradise.

5) Lets Mohn live his life without her because he’s clearly happy, despite her shaky voice betraying her sorrow.

6) Has an employee start working on unfreezing the pokémon she was keeping prisoner.

7) Battles Sun/Moon to learn more about being a good trainer.

8) Talks about deciding to quit interfering in the lives of others. The points listed above are proof that this resolution of hers is genuine. 

So Lusamine apologizes, lets Gladion leave, lets Lillie stay with adults who truly love her, lets Mohn leave, starts working to fix the damage she caused by freezing pokémon, and keeps learning. What more could _USUM_ possibly show as proof that she’s changing? As an abusive parent, there is pretty much nothing else Lusamine could possibly do to correct her behavior. Well, short of quitting her job as president, but _Pokémon_ is a series notorious for not punishing its reformed villains to that extent. See Archie and Maxie remaining team leaders. However, _USUM_ even addressed that issue, because Lusamine does get punished. She is beaten by Giovanni, the leader of Team Rainbow Rocket, a mess Lusamine indirectly caused by making Necrozma fly into a rage and open so many Ultra Wormholes. She faces the consequences of her actions, so even the fans who wished for her to face a karmic punishment got what they wanted.

It seems clear to me why Lillie was so happy to see Lusamine decide to help heal Nebby, and why Gladion was so happy to she Lusamine waving goodbye to him—these actions were clear evidence that she’s trying to put a stop her abusive behaviors.

As for Lillie, I think her decision to stay and become a trainer in Alola is actually more subversive and dramatic than fans give it credit for. Lillie’s treatment of Sun/Moon—her desire to get him/her alone, give him/her gifts, be like him/her, tell him/her secrets she’s never told anyone before—is all obviously romantic in nature. As Lillie can have these feelings for a girl, she is queer. Lillie leaving Alola in _SM_ falls into a Japanese tradition of intense romantic feelings between children that are queer in nature being tragically thrown away during a transition to adulthood (a similar Western tradition can be seen in literary works including Morrison’s  _Sula,_  Hall’s  _The Well of Loneliness_ , Hellman’s _The Children’s Hour_ , and Walker’s  _The Color Purple_ ) **.** Lillie handing Sun/Moon her prized possession before leaving—a pink Poké Doll, a symbol of feminine childhood—makes her parting with the player character a particularly clear example of this trope. It is much more sweet in _USUM_ when she stays and asks to be the player character’s “partner” at the Battle Tree, being as supportive of him/her on the battlefield as she is in life in general. This is a much happier and more subversive ending, especially since she tells Nebby that Sun/Moon is its parent and makes it clear that she wants all of them to grow together—like a family. All of this is especially true if the player chooses to play as Moon, as I did.

In addition, any fears for Lillie’s or Gladion’s safety or mental health can be put to rest in _USUM_. Lillie does not go off alone with Lusamine as the only person she knows, Kukui continues to be her guardian, and Gladion goes on his own journey instead of staying to take on his abusive mother’s old responsibilities. These changes fix problems with the old versions. 

In conclusion, I think _USUM_ has a non-standard plot compared to other _Pokémon_ games, but that it executed this new kind of story very well. It makes me sad that many fans seem to find its plot inferior—in my opinion, its story is better than that of _SM_ and includes everything that made previous _Pokémon_ plots fun, then adds additional elements in a logical way that speaks to a greater theme of how to recover after facing abuse and how to treat other beings with compassion in general.

 


End file.
